Staff at Centrelink’s National Support Office in Tuggeranong turned up the volume last Friday with loud shirts, ties and socks to raise money for children with hearing difficulties.
Staff raised over $2100 for The Shepherd Centre to assist children who are deaf or hearing impaired to develop spoken language.
Centrelink’s Aaron Munchow, who lives in Conder, said he organised the ‘Loud Shirt Day’ fundraiser because he wanted to help kids.
“This event was important on a personal level because I’m hearing impaired and I received a lot of assistance from the Victorian arm of the Shepherd Centre when I was younger,” said Aaron.
“The centre helps deaf children across Australia develop their listening, language and speech skills so they can enter mainstream schooling, so it’s a very worthy initiative.
“In more recent years I’ve tried to be a bit of an ambassador for these sort of programs. I want to give something back to the community that helped me.
“It was also great the Shepherd Centre and Australian Hearing were able to help with the event coordination and providing promotional material for us to use on the day.”
Aaron said ‘Loud Shirt Day’ is also an important event for his team, the Diversity Team in the People Strategy Branch at Centrelink.
“We look at ways we can promote a workplace culture where people’s differences are recognised and valued,” he said.
“So if we can help to provide opportunities for kids with hearing difficulties that’s really a huge achievement for us as a team and also for Centrelink.”
Aaron’s team also ran a best-dressed competition on the day with two categories, the ‘loudest’ and the ‘most craziest’ outfits of the day.
Contact: Siobhan Dillon, (02) 6155 2776 or 0403 658 934
